Safaricom announces plans to enter Kenya pay TV market
Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore says TV-on-demand is the next frontier. Photo/FILE
What you need to know:
Safaricom told Bloomberg news that it is planning to sell Internet and television as a package as it races to reduce reliance on the voice market — which currently account for 63 per cent of the telco’s sales.
The TV product will allow consumers to buy a preferred programme such as a documentary or a movie and watch it through devices like tablets, smartphones or televisions.
The company will gather video content from various producers and deliver the same in a centralised system to YouTube and TV stations, earning subscription fees in the process.
Safaricom is set to enter the television market by the end of next year in a diversification plan that will raise competition in the pay TV business dominated by a few players.
The firm told Bloomberg news that it is planning to sell Internet and television as a package as it races to reduce reliance on the voice market — which currently account for 63 per cent of the telco’s sales.
The TV product will allow consumers to buy a preferred programme such as a documentary or a movie and watch it through devices like tablets, smartphones or televisions.
This will be in line with the incoming digital regime that provides for video-on-demand services, offering an alternative to pre-packaged content that has made pay TV expensive and forced consumers to buy content they do not need.
“We will become a content provider to several forms of media including TV stations and YouTube,” Safaricom’s CEO Bob Collymore told Bloomberg without giving more details.
“People want to decide when they want to consume; they don’t want you to tell them. That immediacy is, I think, how the future will be defined.”
The company will gather video content from various producers and deliver the same in a centralised system to YouTube and TV stations, earning subscription fees in the process.
The TV service is the latest move by the telco to diversify its earnings away from the traditional revenue streams of voice and data.
This development is likely to unsettle the status quo of the segment that is currently controlled by the likes of Wananchi Group’s Zuku, which offers triple play services — pay TV, broadband Internet, and fixed line telephony.
Microsoft Kenya has also announced plans to enter the country’s television market using a gadget dubbed Xbox One that gives users ability to play video games while watching TV or listening to music.
